Francisco Cervelli comes out of Friday's game after breaking his right hand.Paul J. Bereswill

The question smothering the Yankees is this: How much hurt can a team absorb before it melts into the canvas?

Before last night’s game against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium was three innings old, the hosts lost catcher Francisco Cervelli to a fractured right hand and starter Ivan Nova with right elbow pain.

Cervelli will go on the disabled list today, require surgery and miss a minimum of six weeks. Catcher Austin Romine was summoned from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and will join the team today.

Nova was scheduled for an MRI exam last night. Can anybody who has followed the Yankees’ medical reports believe the right-hander won’t land on the shelf?

In addition, Kevin Youkilis missed his sixth straight game with a balky lower back. If he can’t play today, Youkilis likely will join Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira and Cervelli on the DL.

As for the game, the Yankees were fortunate Mets castoff Aaron Laffey was on the mound for the free-falling Blue Jays and posted a very ugly 6-4 victory in front of an announced crowd of 36,151.

The win was the Yankees’ second straight and raised their record to 13-9.

Cervelli left in the top of the first when he took a Rajai Davis foul ball off the knuckle of the right hand and was replaced by Chris Stewart.

Nova exited after giving up a single to Davis in the third inning.

David Phelps replaced Nova in the third inning and posted the victory by throwing four innings in which he allowed a run, two hits and fanned a career-high nine.

Despite poor outings his previous two times out, Phelps is the leading candidate to replace Nova in the rotation if Nova can’t make his next start.

Joba Chamberlain worked a scoreless seventh, David Robertson gave up a solo homer to Jose Bautista in the eighth and Mariano Rivera recorded the final three outs for his eighth save in as many attempts.

Two Yankees runs in the fourth staked them to a 4-2 lead. Brad Lincoln hit Eduardo Nunez leading off the inning and Lyle Overbay’s triple to center scored Nunez. It also ended a 0-for-16 skid for Overbay, who scored on a wild pitch.

The Yankees also scored in the seventh on a passed ball, and Brett Gardner’s two-out, bases-empty homer off Darren Oliver in the eighth accounted for the final run.

Trailing 2-1 in the third, walks to Ben Francisco, Jayson Nix and Robinson Cano by Laffey loaded the bases with one out for Vernon Wells. His fly to left plated Francisco and tied the score. A walk to Stewart re-loaded the bases and brought the right-handed Brad Lincoln to face the lefty-hitting Ichiro Suzuki even though Laffey throws from the left side. Lincoln fanned Suzuki to leave the bases full.

In 2 2/3 innings, Laffey allowed two runs, two hits and walked five.

Nova gave up two runs and four hits in two-plus innings.

Encarnacion’s second-inning homer starting the inning off Nova provided the game’s first score and extended Encarnacion’s consecutive homer streak to four games.